More tour operators are awakening to the potential of having their own booking engines, while early movers are working on upgrades
Destination Asia, Thailand
Victoria Sertic, group business development director
Background Established in 1996, Destination Asia Group is a Bangkok-based DMC with 11 operating offices across Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia and Laos.In April 2013, Destination Asia launched eDA, a new multi-country B2B online booking engine. Early this year in January, the Destination Asia Events website was also created as a one-stop resource tool for events planners. A third platform, Cruise Asia, is due to launch in early March 2014.
Content With hotel fact sheets and touring itineraries available, users can book rooms, tours and transfers around the clock, and confirm a reservation instantaneously. The system also enables users to make additions and changes to itineraries. For clients working offline, these rates will be mirrored online.
Both offline and online rates aim to be the same, but the technology of online systems enables clients to find out special offers easier and quicker.
How it works Clients can request a login or contact the international sales office located in their country. eDA is fully secure and protected by a personal password. There is also a dedicated online support team located in Bangkok handling only eDA bookings, product loading and allocation maintenance.
Clients can complete multi-country bookings within a single PNR, and all paid in one currency to Destination Asia’s central bank with one transaction and invoice. The engine also boasts XML capability.
Future eDA has been very well received, but we have ambitious targets for usage in our emerging markets. Our new websites are merely a tool designed to support our clients and attract new opportunities in markets we are focusing on growing.
Destination Asia will also be launching within 1H2014 a tactical booking engine to support offline partners, but details will only be revealed at a later stage. – Xinyi Liang-Pholsena
Luxury Tours Malaysia
Ganneesh Ramaa, manager
Background Luxury Tours Malaysia was registered as an inbound tour operator in June 2011. Our target market was initially South Asia, but this was later expanded to Europe and Asia-Pacific.We are developing a B2B booking engine in order to reduce manual work and speed up the process of converting enquiries into confirmed bookings. This will also help the company stay lean on staffing. The site is in the final testing process and, at press time, is scheduled to go live by the first week of March.
The cost of the booking engine is RM1 million (US$299,267) and it is being developed by a Singapore-based company, Designersoft.
Content Inbound tour packages, hotel rooms, transportation and entrance to attractions based in Malaysia.
The system will allow prices to be segmented based on markets. Generally, Asian markets will get more competitive prices because suppliers, especially hoteliers, offer cheaper rates to Asians compared with Europeans. However, for land content, such as ground transportation and entrance to attractions, the same price is offered across the board.
How it works Existing partners will be given complimentary access with a user ID and password. New clients will be vetted first to ensure they are genuine buyers before access is permitted.
Currently, most of the business is done with overseas wholesalers. With this, we will be able to reach out to overseas retailers who can make online bookings and receive instant confirmation.
Future We hope all our overseas business partners will use the system by next year. We will also look into establishing a B2C portal in the near future. – S Puvaneswary
Tradewinds Tours & Travel, Singapore
Chua Kian Hwa, general manager
Background As the travel arm of the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group, we manage the Singapore Stopover Holiday and SIA/SilkAir Holidays programmes for our parent airlines.For over two years now, we have offered our SIA & SilkAir stations and overseas agencies the use of a B2B booking platform we call Tour Management System (TMS). It has helped us to expand our distributional reach not just geographically but across a 24/7 timescale. This will be upgraded in April with assistance from software developer 11Infotech.
Content We will be able to offer more unique content because the system allows for an increase in connections to suppliers. It will also be speedier, giving us quicker access to content and allowing us to provide instant confirmation wherever possible.
The new TMS will draw content from a wide range of sources, including our own contracted suppliers and via online wholesalers providing diverse products such as hotels, transfers, car rentals, tours, attractions, etc., through XML connections.
How it works Access to our B2B system is given to our appointed agents and overseas stations. Each of them will be given a master account from which they can self-administer and appoint local users of the system.
Stations and agencies are currently able to book hotel accommodation, transfers, tours and other services directly online without having to send requests to our reservations department.
Future The system cutover has been smooth so far. We are tracking the number of bookings and have a sales target, but figures are confidential. We certainly hope to grow our online bookings with the new system. – Paige Lee Pei Qi
Travel Designer Group, India
Jaal Shah, founder and group managing director
Background Travel Designer Group was founded in Ahmedabad in 1999 as an outbound tour operator offering shorthaul destinations. In 2001, we started our first outbound consolidation business offering the Middle East and South-east Asia as core destinations. RezLive.com was launched in 2008, becoming the first non-air B2B global reservation system. Aside from offering hotels, sightseeing tours and transfers in over 900 locations, apartments were also added last year, allowing travel consultants to make bookings up to one year in advance. We now have offices in over 11 countries.
Content RezLive.com is dynamically connected with leading hotels chains, which allows seamless connections to their global CRS. Besides providing access to the direct inventories of multiple suppliers, our own contracting also comes with price comparison filters, offering users best possible rates with instant confirmation.
How it works Travel consultants can register for free on the RezLive website. We also distribute inventory over XML/API connectivity, which means travel websites and corporate booking tools can sell our products with their own branding.
Multiple-currency options and payment channels help us to reach out to every segment and scale of travel companies.
Future We grew 50 per cent year-on-year in 2013. Our airline tool is in the final stage of launching in 2Q2014, which will make RezLive.com a complete B2B system offering air, hotel and ground services. We also intend to launch a 24/7 call centre and online support system.
We plan to increase our global footprint by expanding in Egypt, Morocco and Turkey shortly. – Shekhar Niyogi
Additional reporting from S Puvaneswary, Paige Lee Pei Qi and Shekhar Niyogi
This article was first published in TTG Asia, March 14, 2014 on page 15. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.
